


Hope

by Ceinos



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-19
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-27 03:31:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5032087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ceinos/pseuds/Ceinos
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Chapter posting is gonna be slow and irregular, sorry guys.  Midterms just finished and I'm in the middle of applying to grad school (plus working on other writing projects simultaneously) so I'm pretty busy.</p>
    </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter posting is gonna be slow and irregular, sorry guys. Midterms just finished and I'm in the middle of applying to grad school (plus working on other writing projects simultaneously) so I'm pretty busy.

Dick Grayson is in love with Wally West.  
He could say it’s Batman’s fault. It would even be true, or close enough. Six months ago, Batman had sat him down after training and said “You’ve been with this for two years; looks like you’re serious about it. That means it’s time for you to start working with some of the League’s other sidekicks, to get a feel for what working with superpowered humans, or even partners with different skillsets than you, is like.”  
Dick was looking forward to it, although the fact that all of them were older than him by at least two years (Speedy was nearly fifteen, practically ancient) made him nervous. His first patrol outside of Gotham was in Pearl Harbor, with Aquaman and Aqualad. The pair was waiting outside of the zeta tubes when he and Batman arrived, and Aquaman greeted them loudly. “Batman! Glad you could make it. And this must be young Robin.”  
Robin waved, somewhat tentatively, and Batman said to Aquaman, “Who else would it be? Now, are we going to stand here chatting all day, or will the two of you show us around the city?”  
Aquaman burst into laughter, and the tall, dark-skinned boy standing behind him smiled. “Let us be off, then,” Aquaman said.  
The patrol was quiet, and Aqualad was the quietest part of it. Robin had tried to start a conversation in nearly every way he could think of, and was met with silence or one-word answers.  
“You will have to forgive my protégé,” Aquaman told Robin as he prepared to zeta back to Gotham. “He is new to the surface world, without your years of experience fighting beside a League member.”

His trip to Star City, three days later, was much more eventful. Almost as soon as Batman was done introducing him to Speedy—who looked at him skeptically as if he was thinking, “What use could a kid like that be?”—something exploded in the distance.  
“I’m on it!” Speedy shouted, running off, before Green Arrow could even react.  
“Speedy, wait up! Speedy!” Green Arrow called after the rapidly diminishing yellow hat.  
“Robin?” Batman said, his voice halfway between suggestion and command.  
“Got it,” Robin replied, and vanished. He was nearly to the site of the first explosion when a second one, bigger and louder, nearly shook him off of his rooftop perch. Turning his imbalance into a controlled drop, Robin landed in front of a jewelry store that was missing its front window. “What the hell happened?”  
“One of ‘em was trying to get away,” Speedy said smugly, gesturing to three would-be robbers lying next to him with their hands tied behind their backs. “But I stopped him.”  
“In a reckless move that not only endangered citizens’ lives, and your own, but also caused massive property damage and could have started a fire that devastated the entire city block.” Green Arrow and Batman had arrived.  
“But it didn’t!” Speedy shot back. “Besides, how am I ever gonna join the League if I don’t show initiative?”  
“By demonstrating that you have the patience to listen to your leader and work in a group, not just on your own,” Batman said. “Right now, your leader is your mentor. When a situation arises, you need to wait for his orders.”  
“But—“  
“No buts.” Batman cut Speedy off. “He’s far more experienced than you, and knows how to deal with situations like this, without putting civilian lives or property at risk.”  
“I got the job done,” Speedy muttered sulkily.  
“Roy, what he’s saying is that, when you’re a hero, what matters isn’t just getting the job done. It’s how you do it.” Green Arrow put his arm around Speedy’s shoulders and lowered his voice. “I know you want to prove yourself to me after your disappearance, but you don’t have to. You’re still the same Roy I’ve been training all this time.”  
Slightly embarrassed at overhearing Green Arrow’s obviously private words, Robin turned away and looked up at Batman. Batman’s eyes were narrowed, but he didn’t say anything.  
The silence of the rest of the patrol was even worse than at Pearl Harbor. It was underscored by Batman and Green Arrow conversing in low voices, this time too quiet for Robin to catch any words, and Speedy sulking, fiddling absentmindedly with his bowstring or the feather on his hat and looking like he’d start yelling at the first sign of conversation. Robin didn’t even try to break the silence this time. He wondered if Speedy’s disappearance and apparently sudden return were the reason Batman had started working with all the sidekicks together; safety in numbers and all that. Was Batman worried that another one of them might disappear, this time for good?

Whatever Dick’s thoughts about Speedy’s disappearance, they were gone from his head when Batman took him to Central City the next week. He and Batman were greeted at the zeta tube by the Flash and a redheaded boy, probably about thirteen or so, who must be Kid Flash. He waved enthusiastically at them before dashing over to Robin’s side. “Hey, you must be Robin, the Boy Wonder,” he said. “I’m, uh, Kid Flash.” Behind his red-tinted goggles, his eyes were excited. “You’re practically famous, this is so cool. Tell me all about yourself!”  
Robin laughed at his flood of words. “What do you want to know?” he said. “I can tell you anything, as long as it doesn’t compromise my secret identity.” He gave Batman a sideways glance, and saw him give a small nod. “Batman’s super serious about that.”  
Kid Flash paused as if considering his options for questions to ask. “What do you want to be when you grow up? What’s your favorite color? Do you have any pets? What’s your favorite school subject? If you could turn into an animal, what would it be? What…”  
 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2, finally! Sorry for keeping everyone waiting. These should be coming a lot faster now that I have a) more free time and b) discovered the wonder that is 4thewords. Don't think I can commit to a regular schedule quite yet, but I'll let you know when I can.

It seemed obvious to Dick why he was looking forward more to his Central City patrols than those in Star City or on various coastlines. Loquacious and friendly Kid Flash was way more fun to hang out with than Speedy, who was grumpy more often than not, or Aqualad, who still hadn’t managed to put ten words together yet. The nervous fluttering in his stomach was almost certainly just ordinary worries about saying entertaining or clever things, or not accidentally messing up and revealing his secret identity by accident. Ordinary nerves, nothing to worry about. Certainly something easily ignored when listening to Kid Flash enthuse non-stop about his latest home-science project (making super-bouncy-balls out  
of supermarket materials, for a superhero’s super-sidekick! Wasn’t that pun great, I mean super, and maybe I should use them to demonstrate nuclear fission at the next science fair). The nervous, gotta-get-everything-right energy wasn’t even what made him go after the bouncy ball when a demonstration of the science project went wrong and the ball disappeared down a storm drain and Robin went after it, earning him a lecture from the Flash and a glare from Batman. 

Nope, definitely just ordinary nerves about hanging out with a good friend. Nothing more going on. Dick had even looked up what having a crush on someone was like, and almost all of the things hadn’t applied to him. (Sure, he liked it when KF nudged him when he made a joke or put an arm around his shoulders. Sure, he was always disappointed when the contact stopped. That didn’t mean he wanted to be all cuddly with him or be touching him all the time or anything.) He wasn’t totally focused on trying to impress KF, he just looked up the science fair projects because they were interesting and creative. Besides, he was Batman's sidekick, way too busy for romance and all that junk. He had to think about saving the world, not who to take to the school dance. 

Although Kid Flash certainly seemed to find the time to think about those things. One day in early March, he was wearing a goofy party hat when Batman and Robin emerged from the zeta tube, and Batman scarcely had time to start one of his infamous glares before Flash cut in: "It's his fourteenth birthday, cut him some slack." 

"Happy birthday," Robin said. "Any good presents?" 

As the quartet started on the familiar round of the city, Kid Flash was bouncing like a balloon on the end of a ribbon. "Only the best," he replied. "A new chem kit, and my parents say I can bring a girl with me to the spring fling. How cool is that? I'm thinking about asking Maria, but maybe Danielle would be better? I dunno, they're both great. Danielle is super spunky, she kinda made the school board start an anti-bullying program by picking fights with all the bullies, but Maria's super sweet and all the animal shelter's photos of her volunteering are so cute..."

Robin stared at the swishing end of Batman's cape while he thought to himself I'm not jealous. I'm definitely not wishing I could go to KF's spring fling. Dances are boring, remember? Even Babs thinks school dances are for chumps. When Kid Flash seemed to have exhausted his list of possible dance partners, Robin took the opportunity to hop in with, "Have you worked with any of the other sidekicks yet? What do you think of them?" 

Kid Flash laughed, and Robin forced himself to ignore the tingles that went up and down his arms at the sound. "Aqualad's definitely the strong-and-silent type, am I right?" KF said. "I can barely get a word out of him--" 

"Even with you pausing to give him a chance to speak," Robin shot back, with a mischievous grin. 

"Hey!" KF gave Robin a playful shove to match his mock-indignant tone. "I don't talk that much." 

"To Aqualad it probably sounds like you do," Robin shot back at him.

"I've gotta give you that one. Point is, though, he barely talks to his mentor, at least when we're around. I mean, I'm not that scary, am I? Speedy, though, Speedy is super cool. Did you know that Green Arrow sometimes lets him drive? He's got his permit now and everything, man being sixteen is cool."

Robin toyed with mentioning that Batman had given him a motorcycle, but bit his tongue on the thought. Batman did tell me not to flaunt it around, he reminded himself. 

"Plus he's so motivated, although I do gotta admit that's a bit of a downer sometimes, but mostly he just does things no one else would! So. Awesome. Am I right or am I right?" 

When Robin got back to Wayne Manor, he couldn't stop going over and over KF's words in his head. "Speedy, so cool...Maria and Danielle..." He growled under his breath, punched his pillow, and went to the gym. Maybe some time on the rings would clear his thoughts. He could go back to thinking about being an Olympic gymnast, like a normal twelve-year-old, instead of boys. 

When he finished his workout, Dick went upstairs and plopped himself down in front of his computer. Maybe he could look up KF's upcoming regionals for the chemistry olympiad. Scrolling through the entrants, he recognized a name that had been in a few other of Kid Flash's competitions. Wally West, huh. He clicked the link to the guy's bio, then flinched as he saw the picture: Kid Flash was staring out of the screen at him. Sure, wearing a t-shirt and jeans instead of the yellow suit he wore on patrol, but Dick would recognize the messy red hair, the green eyes, and especially the enthusiastic grin anywhere. Wally West. My best friend's name is...Wally West. 

Dick dove into the internet, searching up more information on the apparent kid genius. Not that that was surprising, given the projects he'd talked about before and that he was a superhero's sidekick: hell, Dick could do things with computers that still confused Batman. He found a yearbook from the middle school Wally attended; once more his face grinned out at Dick's from the computer screen. Flipping through its pages a bit, Dick found probable candidates for Maria and Danielle. They were pretty enough, he guessed, but they didn't make his nerves tingle or his heartbeat stutter the way KF did. Shutting the laptop in front of him, Dick buried his face in a pillow and groaned. Why can't I like girls, like a normal guy? 

Two weeks later, KF pulled Robin aside at the end of a patrol. "I want to tell you something," he said in a not-quite undertone. His fingers were tapping nervously on his leg, and his eyes flickered from Robin to Batman and back. 

Robin's heart kicked up what felt like a couple hundred RPMs. "What's up?"

"I don't like keeping secrets from my best bro, and I talked to--to Flash and he said he talked to Batman and they think it's ok so I just want to tell you, my secret ID, I'm Wally. Wally West." He pushed back his goggles and the head covering of his suit. Robin's eyes traced the pattern of freckles, the mess of red hair, the lighthearted (well, currently nervous) green eyes that had become so familiar to him over the past two weeks as he read and re-read articles from Central City's paper about the local kid genius.

Finally, Robin let out a small laugh. "I've known for weeks," he said. He saw some of KF's tension melt away at this. "You think you can tell me all about your awesome competition-winning science projects and I wouldn't figure it out? I'm apprenticed to the world's greatest detective, remember?"

KF laughed, and Robin's heart rate sped up again. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised, huh? Maybe I should start figuring out your secret ID next." He gave his familiar grin and nudged Robin's shoulder, at least until he noticed Batman glaring at them. 

Robin said, in a stage whisper, "He has ears like a bat, too," and nudged KF--Wally-- back. The Batglare shifted to target Robin, until he grinned and said, in a normal tone, "You know it's true." 

When they made it back to the mansion, Dick felt like he was floating. Wally trusted him enough to tell him his secret ID--maybe enough to have badgered Flash until he got permission to share his secret ID. Maybe he'd be able to tell Wally his secret someday too. He flopped onto his bed, ignoring the copy of Emma that he was supposed to be reading and staring instead at the Flying Graysons poster he'd pinned on the wall opposite his bed. The thought of telling someone else was surprisingly more relieving than painful, especially if 'someone' was Wally, his best friend. 

He was still staring at the poster when Alfred came in with his dinner. "Penny for your thoughts, Master Dick?" he asked, carefully setting the tray of food down on Dick's desk. 

"What's it like to be in love?"


End file.
